Christianity in Jamestown

Ken Curtis, Ph.D.

Church History Timeline

In the century following Columbus' famous
voyage, Spain had built up an empire in America. Vast amounts of gold
were found, and Spain became the wealthiest nation of its day. England
wanted some of that wealth; establishing colonies in America seemed the
way to get it. Yet, many also saw important Christian reasons for establishing
colonies in the newly found lands across the sea.

Mixed motives
Twice Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to sponsor the establishment of a colony
in American land he had named Virginia in honor of England's virgin queen.
Twice his colonizing venture failed. When Queen Elizabeth died, her successor,
King James I (who later sponsored the translation known as the King James
Bible), furthered England's colonial dreams by granting a charter for
colonial settlement to a group of businessmen who had organized themselves
into the Virginia Company. Numerous economic, political, and patriotic
reasons for establishing the colony were given in the charter, but also
stated as important was the goal of propagating the Christian religion
to such people, as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of true
knowledge and worship of God. A Christian witness to the native Americans
was one of the reasons for establishing Jamestown, England's first permanent
American colony.

Hard scrabble beginnings
Among the first settlers to begin the Jamestown settlement in 1607 was
the Reverend Robert Hunt. As the first colonists landed on Virginia soil,
one of their first acts was to join Rev. Hunt in a communion service,
yet the lives of these earliest colonists lacked a strong Christian commitment.
Their squabbling, pride, arrogance, and greediness almost wrecked the
settlement. The earliest colonists had no room for God in their personal
lives and certainly had no concern for evangelizing the Indians. Disease,
famine, and later, Indians, began to take their toll. In the earliest
years of the settlement, nine out of every ten colonists died. As more
colonists arrived from England, the problems multiplied, and the death
count mounted.

Divine mandate?
Yet there were those in England who persisted in thinking God had a purpose
and plan for the English on those Virginia shores. In 1609 William Symonds
preached a sermon to the Virginia Company in England comparing Virginia
to the biblical land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. As Caleb
and Joshua encouraged Israel to go and possess the land of Canaan, so
Symonds encouraged his English countrymen to go and take possession of
the colony in Virginia, a fruitful land also full of "plenty of Fish
and Fowl."

Providential provision averts defeat
In 1609, a third supply of settlers set out for Jamestown on the Sea Venture.
The ship was caught in a hurricane and shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda,
yet all the passengers made it safely to shore (William Shakespeare used
the accounts of the storm and shipwreck as the basis for his play, The
Tempest ). The people were able to reconstruct two ships from the
wreck, which they christened Patience and Deliverance, and
in 1610 they finally reached Jamestown. The Jamestown they reached, however,
was more like the ruins of a fort than anything people lived in. There
seemed nothing to do but reboard the ships and try to sail to England
along with whatever colonists still remained. Just as they were preparing
to leave, however, Lord de La Warr arrived from England with a fresh supply
of colonists and generous provisions.

Among the passengers of the Sea Venture who had survived hurricane
and shipwreck to land in a despairing colony was John Rolfe. Unlike the
earliest settlers, Rolfe was a hardworking man whose Christian faith was
very important to him. Calvin's Institutes was one of the works he had
carefully studied. He believed there was a Christian purpose for Jamestown,
and he sought to "advance the Honor of God, and to propagate his
Gospel." He believed there was "no small hope by piety, clemency,
courtesy and civil demeanor to convert and bring to the knowledge and
true worship of Jesus Christ 1000s of poor wretched and misbelieving people:
on whose faces a good Christian cannot look, without sorrow, pity and
commiseration; seeing they bear the Image of our heavenly Creator, and
we and they come from one and the same mold. . ."

Mixed marriage snubbed
One native who particularly touched Rolfe's heart was Pocahontas, daughter
of the Indian chief Powhatan. Rolfe loved the young woman but was unsure
whether marriage with her would be in God's will. He wrestled with himself
-- wondering if marrying a heathen woman wouldn't be like the Israelites
of old marrying the Canaanites, something the Lord had definitely forbidden.
He finally thought that as a laborer in the Lord's vineyard, he should
plant the seed of the gospel so she could become a Christian. With her
conversion, Pocahontas took the Christian name of Rebecca, and she became
John Rolfe's wife. Their marriage brought a temporary peace between the
English colonists and the Indians. Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe later went to England
where the queen received the Indian princess -- King James, however, refused
to see the Rolfes. He was angered that Rolfe would marry a person of royal
position without asking his permission!

Hardships, sufferings, difficulties, and disappointments continued in
the Virginia settlements throughout the early years. Alexander Whitaker,
minister at Henrico, Virginia in 1612 reminded the settlers that the problems
were indicative of the great spiritual struggle in the new land.

The Lord to the rescue?
De La Warr's arrival just at that moment seemed providential to the
bedraggled colonists. God had come to their aid, and the colony would
be preserved. One of the first things the new colonial governor Lord
de La Warr did was organize a worship service as a biblical call for
sacrifice and industry.